Paladins of The New Age
by Ostia Queen of Randomness
Summary: In a future where Empress Honerva rules supreme alongside her husband Zarkon and son Lotor, the Paladins have gone into hiding with their families. Some captured, some on the run, but a new coalition is on the horizon. I own no characters, aliens, robots or planets from the TV show, only my OCs. All of the original paladins are in their 40s in this, btw. Rated M for bloody scenes.
1. Wandering Through Vatuan

It was a dark night on Vatuan. Barely any stars could be seen in the sky because the planet was so far from everything. Vatuan was known for its harsh criminals and devastating poverty, which was ironic, as the planet had been a well off, tranquil place before the galra had invaded and turned it into a military base. In the cities where the galra installations were absent, gamblers and robbers ran rampant in taverns and casinos that lined the maze of streets in the cities that had never heard law. The largest of these cities was Shein, the largest trading centre of the Unilu. Nobody apart from the devastatingly poor lived here, it was known as the Home of Cholera, as it rarely had access to the things that even remotely well-off people took for granted. The only other 'Jobs' that were available, apart from recruiter (Picking up drunks and handing them to the nearest cruiser port, where they would be automatically hired as sentries against there will), were pickpocket, casino boss or landlord. The most popular 'Job' was pickpocket, so nobody left Shein with the same amount of belongings they had coming there, if the were lucky enough to escape alive. The alleyways were lined with bounty hunters, most likely being paid very large amounts of money by the galra generals who wanted people dead or captured alive, to be killed later in the fashion that the payer had specialised.

It was a ghastly place. Of all the alleys webbed Shein, all of them were dotted with smokers and bars. No one who wanted to get away sober and with money would go there. However, there was one.

A cloaked woman walked through these alleyways. Her figure was tall, slim, and she had a gun strapped to her belt. No one approached her, and she approached no one.

Eventually, Mira stopped outside a broken gambler's house, and sat in the corner of

the room. She watched as people lost and won at cards, argued about politics, and got as drunk as it was possible to be. At least a quintant passed before the drunken gamblers (or at least, those who could stand up) left with their empty purses. Mira stood up from the worn leather chair she was sitting on and tiptoed up the private staircase that led to the head office. She listened at the boss' door for around two doboshes, making sure she was alone up there, then opened the door and went straight to the computer desk. After searching and finding a dusty post-it with the username and passcode written on it in the desk's top drawer, Mira logged in as the landlord, then she went to where the private files were. After a varga and a half, she found the file she was looking for.

Keith Kogane and Acxa Kogane imprisonment Information [CLASSIFIED]:

* Kept in prison 6-GH-23

* Captured by the Empress Honerva's Loyal servant Karr

Consider abduction [SUCCESSFUL]

She printed the file, then deleted it. No one could know who she was searching for.

Mira ran out of the gambler's house, and jumped on her hoverbike. She then drove home.

When Mira was ten years old, she woke up from the sound of smashing glass in the middle of the night, and her father and aunt were nowhere to be seen. Mira ran to the window, only to see them tied unconscious on the back of an aeroplane. She cried out and her grandmother rushed in. Nothing could be done.

Back at the house, Krolia was sitting at the kitchen table, waiting for Mira to get home. She was scratching the metal of the table with a pencil, drawing pictures of Earth. It was one place she found peaceful. At least, the Earth that wasn't now a galra slave import station. There was a rattle of keys in the lock of the front door, and Krolia got up to greet Mira. Instead, Mira pushed her away and ran upstairs to her room. Krolia sighed, Mira used to be so close to her, but now, for all Krolia knew, she spent her days in taverns around Shein, picking up drunks that lay on the sidewalks and driving them to the nearest galra faction for hire. She went to bed. Tired, old, and on the run from the galra yet again


	2. An Attempted Rescue

Mira sat at her computer, scrolling through the most recent galra prison

information. That she had stolen from the gamblers house.

 _Sol. 7763349, am. Signed by Guard 34B_

 _No speech from the prisoners today. A aimed to kick the door down._

 _Sol. 7763350, pm. Signed by Guard 34B_

 _Both slept, A said 'Mira' in sleep. Nothing suspicious._

 _Sol. 7763351, am. Signed by Guard 67G_

 _K and A did nothing of interest today, clearly sleeping._

Mira didn't need any more information on that file, so she went to the next section.

 _Location. Prison 65GHI, Orbiting Vatuan._

She leapt out of her seat and shouted "Yes!"

Krolia heard the front door open and shut within the span of half a tick, and realised Mira was probably in a rush to go somewhere. It was a shame she was so secretive about everything. She had to be, Krolia guessed, nobody was stupid enough to tell anybody anything worth lint. Even more so with Honerva as Empress.

Her hoverbike went straight to the nearest delivery ship. The plan was simple, sneak on a delivery ship, get to the prison, get into the cell and get out with mom and dad. Simple.

Oh, wait, no it wasn't. Mira had to apply for a job at the prison under an assumed identity (Gagoa Debe) and spent at least two days monitoring practically every cell apart from her parents. She knew she would have to work her way up the job ladder, so, while helping many innocent people escape, she put holograms in their place, to make it seem that they never had escaped. Eventually there came the day when her antics would be found out.

A guard happened to pass by the door to a cell when Mira was helping an olkari escape. She knocked out the guard, and realised that she needed to use force to help her dad and aunt escape this manmade hell.

She ran to the centre of the station, slapping alarms everywhere she could. The station was apparently on fire, blowing up, crash landing and nearing a really big solar flare all at the same time. The nearer she got to the centre of the station, the more escapees she recognised. Kolivan and Yan-Tethra could be seen among the running crowds. Clearly the emergency fire doors weren't working, because there were hundreds of prisoners still trapped in the cells. Mira ran to the control deck, and whacked the button that opened all the cell doors. It was then that she ran into yet another problem. The cell that her parents were held in had a fault in the doors that prevented them from opening. She dashed through the close packed crowd (did it have an end?) But, when she got there, she paused a foot from the door. Mira could see her parents tied up, unconscious in two chairs. There were two robot guards stationed either side. Mira gripped her grandmother's blade, her life depending on it.

Three. Two. One.

She leapt into action, quickly decapitating both the robots with her blade before they had time to send the programmed automatic distress call. Suddenly, before Mira had time to smile at her small victory, the foot-thick fire doors slammed shut behind her to prevent spread of the non-existent flames. Now that the doors were as good as welded shut, she was the only conscious person in the prison room. This gave her more than enough time to figure out how to open the complicated cell door, but it locked her only means of escape. She was just as much prisoner as Keith and Acxa.


	3. JGC36 Logging In

Jo didn't like being 'Cat'. She hated the fact that her family's sworn enemies were now running rampant through the universe, that her mother and father were in prison, that her once huge family was now half dead and half imprisoned, with only a few managing to get by under and assumed identity. It wasn't fair. It never was running from two galra bounty hunters who were hired to bring 'Cat' to the feet of a low galra general who went by the name of Karr. She was in control of a small group of solar systems of the Seina quadrant, which want the most intriguing of quadrants to begin with. Karr wasn't very famous is among galra generals, but those who knew Karr knew that her methods of interrogation were excruciatingly painful. The pressures included acid, electric shocks or slow poisons to make every nerve in one's body scream with pain. Her favourite pain was that of a wringer, and it was used to squeeze every drop of information, and often blood, out of the informants body.

As you could imagine, Jo didn't want to experience any of those, so she was running as fast as her heavy army boots could carry her. Noticing that it was dark enough to stop running and hide, she recognised a nearby alleyway, so she ran into it and climbed up a stepladder that led to a half-broken fire escape. She waited a short amount of time for the bounty hunters to get at least a quarter of a mile away from her, then she continued climbing up the metal stairs.

Her base was a mess of broken filing cabinets and empty chippy boxes only accessible by a half-broken window. In one corner of the box room, a cork board was hung up on the wall. It looked like the stereotypical connect-the-dots police investigators mess of a plan. By the tiny window, there was an old office desk, this was her 'Everything Table'. She ate there, planned there, and even slept there occasionally. There was no bed in the room, so Jo had to give up information on the whereabouts of two criminals to an Unilu in exchange for a sleeping bag. It sat under the cork board, rolled up to make room for an artillery set that Jo had stolen from a robot soldier she had deactivated while infiltrating an outpost that held the most experienced generals in a conference. It had been completely wrecked by Jo using nano-thermite-titanium-boron, a chemical famous for blowing up galra outposts. She opened her laptop (stolen from an Unilu trader after a bar fight) and logged on.

 _Username: JGC36_

 _Passcode: ••••••••_

She went to her private documents and slipped in the USB she had snatched from an undercover galra cop after knocking him out. The message appeared on the blank page.

 _HG and PH are still at large, last sighted in the Kobi solar system. All generals on high alert. Order from The Great Empress Honerva._

A photo of her parents was spread across the bottom of the page. They were in a market on the planet Jaqo, worried looks on their aged faces. A scar crossed her father's face, and he was holding the hands of another, younger man. Her brother Alex was there as well. Pleased by this, Jo leant back in the squeaky chair, and printed the photo. She pinned it to her cork board and connected a few more dots. The information was vague, but at least it was information.

Suddenly, an idea came to her. Her friend Mira was on the neighbouring city of Shein, undercover with her grandmother, a former member of the Blade of Marmora. She could contact them and exchange information, but it was too risky with a normal transponder. The local galra faction was tracking every call in and out of her home city, Keneo.

But there was another way. She could use her father's old transponder to contact Mira. It sent a signal that couldn't be picked up by normal instruments, as designed by one of the rebellions scientists in the old days when those who opposed the galra stood a chance. Back when Voltron wasn't captured by the galra.

 _"Mira Kogane, this is Joanna Garret. Are you reading me? Over."_

Jo waited. If, by some wondrous circumstance, the message got through Mira's transponder, would she even pick up? Did she still have it after all this time?

She waited for what felt like a three vargas.

Then, by some wondrous circumstance,

 _"Jo! I'm reading you! I'm stuck in prison 65GHI orbiting Vatuan, I was on a rescue mission to get my dad and Acxa, but the doors shut behind me, and I have no way of getting out! Please get here as fast as you can! I need help! Repeat, I need help!"_


	4. An Attempted Rescue Made Sucessful

_"Jo! I'm reading you! I'm stuck in prison 65GHI orbiting Vatuan, I was on a rescue mission to get my dad and Acxa, but the doors shut behind me, and I have no way of getting out! Please get here as fast as you can! I need help! Repeat, I need help!"_

Jo nearly leapt out of her seat, but grabbed the artillery set and a printed map of 65GHI. She then climbed out of her window, and ran down the fire escape like a madwoman. She latched onto a speeder that was taking two drunkards to the prison, and knocked out the driver. She took the wheel, ignoring the racist cries of the drunks. When she reached the loading bay for the nearest cruiser, she snuck into one of the smaller entrances, nobody noticed her except for one lone guard, who she knocked out and stole the armour of.

When the ship reached the station, it was immediately boarded by millions of people, prisoner and guard alike. They all looked flustered, for some unknown reason.

Ignoring the tsunami of escapees, Jo ran through the crowd and rushed towards the centre of the station. Eventually she saw a thick metal door that looked like it could withstand the weight of a thousand yalmors. She spoke into her transponder.

 _"Mira! I'm at a door that has JHGU56B stamped on it, is this the one I'm looking for?"_

 _"Yes, there's a control panel to your right, it closes and opens the door."_

Jo ran to the panel. There were so many buttons and switches on it. Jo couldn't work with buttons or switches, that wasn't her strength at all. The whole keypad looked like a really confusing quirkle table where no one played by the rules.

 _"Mira, which button should I press?"_

 _"On the keypad with the dates, type this in. Varga, varga, quintant, phoeb, tick, deca-phoeb, varga, dobosh."_

Jo did so, and the doors to the cell slowly creaked open. Mira was standing inside, looking tired and unkempt. Jo probably looked the same, only more so.

Behind Mira, Keith and Acxa sat tied up in chairs. Mira had obviously been trying to undo the handcuffs, but had had no luck. The paladin and his wife were still firmly tied in the chairs, but the duct tape used to keep them quiet had been ripped off, leaving a red streak around their mouths. Courtesy of Mira Kogane.

"Hey, Jo." Acxa said.

After Jo had broken the handcuffs with her strong arms, they had escaped the station in a confiscated olkari pod. When they were just leaving the atmosphere of the moon, Mira mentioned that they should go to Jaqo, as Shay, Hunk and Alex were seen there two days ago.

Acxa leant back in her seat, "How do we know they're still there? They could have moved. A lot can happen in two days, you know." She fumbled with a hairpin that was lying around the pod. "They wouldn't be stupid enough to stay there once they'd been spotted." She noted.

Keith agreed, "They're probably still in the Kobi system though. The place is huge, even by solar system scale, and completely drenched in galra installations." His hand was gripped on his blade, as it always was. "It would take at least a month to get out." He explained.

Jo interrupted, "So, let's say that they tried to leave the day after they were caught on camera. Yesterday. From the moon Jaqo to the edge of the system, it's about three light years." She put on her 'I'm-doing-maths' face that Mira found downright hilarious. "If that takes a month, then they're around the rings of planet Gai'sqe right now." She sighed. "I guess that's where we're headed, huh?" She looked at Acxa. Acxa shrugged, then turned to Mira. "Lead the way, Ma'am." She said.

The journey through the Kobi system was by no means easy.

It could be described using certain onomatopoeia, such as BANG! CRASH! KABOOM!

But I find it much too lazy to use those words as descriptions.

The BANG was a loose wire causing a fire in the dashboard, blowing the navigation system, so Jo had to play mechanic and fix it while Mira was still piloting the pod. The CRASH was the sonar failing to notice an asteroid. Jo had to fix that system too. At this point, she gave the entire system a check to make sure she didn't have to work on the ship any more than she had to.

The KABOOM was Mira accidentally setting off two dropper bombs and launching them into random space. Many eyerolls and facepalms followed.

At this point, the very damaged passengers voted on Acxa flying the ship, as Mira didn't seem to know the difference between the dropper bombs button and the booster thruster switch when, really, they could not have been more different.


	5. What Happens on Jaqo Stays on Jaqo

Hunk dashed through the Jaqoian market crowds with Shay and Alex. Alex had spotted a galra officer snapping a photo of them, so basically everyone in the new galra empire new where they were. There was no doubt it would be used in a 'Last seen at' document for galra generals everywhere.

So they were headed to the forum, where there was enough space to, say, call a yellow lion from. When they got to the forum, Hunk hid behind a statue to focus on the red lion. He mentally searched through the universe, and found it in a containment unit on a taujeerian asteroid. He called the lion.

Alex was stressed more than usual, and considering the usual was being public enemy number five, travelling with public enemies one and ten, this kind of stress was definitely not good for his mind.

His dad was still calling the lion, which, Alex guessed, was probably fifty million light years away on a galra occupied ice planet in the middle of nowhere.

The soldiers were getting closer, pushing crowds out of the way and eyeing anyone whose face was hidden. Alex crossed his fingers and hoped for the best.

The yellow lion burst through the atmosphere in a fireball, roaring at the sight of its master. Hunk, Shay and Alex fell into the cockpit, and Hunk sped out of the orbit of Jaqo. Then he noticed something.

An old olkari pod was floating through space just at the edge of the solar system. It looked very out of place in the purple haze of the mass of galra occupied planets.

Suddenly, Hunk's transponder rang. To everyone's great surprise, Acxa was apparently in the pod, looking for them.

Hunk flew the red lion in their direction, leaving Shay and Alex boarded the ship. Alex went down to the hold and opened the door to the olkari pod. Mira climbed out. She looked taller than when Alex last saw her, and had a scar on her left cheek. She was wearing dirty rags (clearly scavenged) and a satchel with a pistol in it. She ran over to Alex and kissed him, so a pile of tangled black hair covered his face.

Mira started crying, "Alex, you're alive!" She didn't let go of him for at least thirty ticks, at which point Alex was struggling to breathe. He didn't mind.

To Alex's great surprise, another girl came out of the pod. She wore a bounty hunters garb, most likely stolen. Her eyes were a bright yellow, and she looked at Alex with the biggest grin she'd put on in years. It was his sister, Joanna.

The moment Joanna saw Alex, she ran over to him. "All those years, I never gave up on you..." She hugged him tightly. "Have you see our other passengers?" She pointed to the door of the pod. Two people were standing at the bottom of the stepladder, Acxa and Keith. They looked about as dirty and hardy as Alex was, but Keith's knife looked shinier, for some reason. He probably didn't use it were much nowadays.

Keith smiled, "Long time, no see." He said. Then he asked, "Is Hunk up there? I haven't seen him in years." He turned to Acxa, "Maybe we could find some bandages?"

Acxa nodded. "As you can imagine, we had a couple of bruises from imprisonment, most are from the cattle prods. You'd think the galra would be able to afford actual weapons..." She shrugged, "So, who's with you?" She asked Alex.

Alex cocked his head in the direction of the stairs. "Come see."

When Hunk saw Jo come into the cockpit everything was right. His daughter was in his arms for the last time in twenty years.

Karr was throwing knives at the bounty hunters.

She had just been told that there was a mass prison breakout, and four of the most important prisoners had escaped.

As you could imagine she was not in the best mood.

"I TOLD YOU TO GET ME JOANNA GARRET FROM THE CITY OF SHEIN AND YOU BRING ME NOTHING!" She yelled at them, "AND NOW YOU TELL ME THREE OF THE PALADINS ARE NOW AT LARGE?!" One of the hunters had to dodge five throwing knifes that came out of Karr's hands as fast as bullets. "YOU WILL BE EXECUTED!" She spat, "PAINFULLY!"


	6. An Escape and A Reunion

Pidge was frustrated.

She and Lance, under the fake identities of 'Holly Van Daal' and 'George Faun' Not the subtlest of names on Pidge's part), had been caught vandalising galra pods by making all the alarms, instead of beeping, shout "Honerva is an ugly B!&!£ " in five different languages. Occasionally it would say "Karr is the dictionary definition of &!hole" in seven. Pidge had no regrets about that particular technological exploit, but she didn't like being in prison without a computer. It just didn't suit her personality.

Meaning it drove her up the wall, round the bend, apples and bananas.

She thought about the cell walls. No... The walls were too thick to bust through, even with Hunk's massive strength. But the cell door was made of thinner material, most likely steel. That, Lance's bayard could smash down easily, if they hadn't left it in the bag.

She was just about to tell Lance her grand idea when the door opened.

A young man stood in the doorway, he was tall, his face hidden by a cloak, and, from what Pidge could see in the darkness of the cell, he had a scrawny figure. "We need to go." He said, his voice was farmilliar. "Now."

Lance was confused.

He and Pidge had been imprisoned in a secret base for about two days, then, out of the blue, a weird guy in rags had turned up at the cell door to take the to 'where they needed to go', wherever that was. Lance kept thinking he recognised the voice, but there was no way he had met this weirdo before.

The mystery man took them to the loading bay of the prison, and to a galra pod. The pilot, like the mystery man, was wearing a cloak that hid his face. Obviously these people wanted to keep their identities a secret. This pilot was broad shouldered and muscular, as opposed to the escort, who was lean and lanky. He was wearing gloves, one of which was bright red. The mystery man no. 1 told Lance and Pidge to sit down in the passenger seats. They sat down, and the pilot launched off the port at the kind of speed that would have made even the most practiced aviator would have trouble keeping his gastrointestinal problems a secret. Hunk wouldn't last a second in this thing.

At his sides, Lance crossed his fingers and hoped that Pidge had a plan to rescue both of them from this mess. She was good at that, as well as-

Lance's thoughts were cut off the moment he saw the escort take his hood off.

Pidge felt longing, pain, happiness, excitement, relief and betrayal all at once when she saw who was under that thick hood. "MATT!" She shouted, and ran over to hug him. For that one moment, she felt everything was complete. Then she realised that she was a convict that had just broken out of prison.

The pilot turned around on his swivel chair, then he pulled back his hood. Pidge thought she was dreaming, then she realised it was really who she thought it was. David Garret, her nephew, was sitting in the chair.

Pidge couldn't decide whether to hug Matt or David, so she pushed Matt to where David was, and squeezed most of the air out of them for about two ticks when Lance joined them and made it downright impossible for anyone to breathe. Matt pointed this out, so hunk let go, then Matt turned to David and said, "We're approaching."

David sat back down in the pilot seat and landed them in a pod bay, then got up and opened the door to the pod. "We're here, let's go." And he climbed down the side of the pod.

The moment Pidge saw what was outside, she gasped in amazement. Right in front of her stood the original Atlas. The ship that saved her life was standing in front of her in all its glory. She had a small voice in her head that wanted her to say thank you to the ship, but thanking a fifty-thousand ton metal ark probably would look a little weird.


	7. Space Jamming to Queen

"So," Pidge said, "What are we supposed to do now? I assume you had a reason to bring us here other than just to rescue us?" She crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow.

Matt stifled a laugh, "Well, we've been trying to get the Atlas up and running, but we don't have enough power, it's basically the same situation as back on Earth all those years ago-"

"Except now we have no handy battery necklace." Pidge finished. "I guess you want us to summon a lion then? Too bad, because we lost the connection a good five years ago."

Matt sighed, then Lance butted in, "Is there a Balmera anywhere near here? We could power it up the same way we did with the Castle of Lions back in the day." He suggested.

Pidge considered, "Is there?" She asked David.

"The closest one is a couple of systems away." He replied, "One of our ships could get you there and back, but you'll have to be quick. The radio monitoring system Karr's put in place is sharp."

Pidge smiled, "I guess I'll just have to wing it." She said, "Come on, Lance, we're gonna find ourselves a MILF!"

Matt put a hand to his face in shame, "That's not what they're called, Pidge."

"Yeah, I'm still calling them that."

Lance slid his fingers across the controls. They clearly hadn't been used in a while as a layer of dust filled every crevice there. He looked beside him at Pidge, wondering what she was thinking about.

"So, co-pilot, can you enter in the co-ordinates as I can't reach the board from here? Thanks." He smiled at Pidge's face when he made that comment. Man, Pidge could gurn like no-one else could.

She put in the coordinates for the Balmera, and Lance took off from the launch pad. They were soon speeding away from the moon the Atlas was grounded on, and surrounded by stars once more.

Then, an awesome idea came to her head. Ridiculous, but awesome.

"Lance?" She asked, "Does this ship have a music system?"

Lance knitted his eyebrows at the strange question, "Why are you asking?"

"Because I snuck a music drive from the office when we were leaving." She smirked.

Lance pondered this for a second, then queried, "What songs are on there?"

Pidge grinned, "Queen: News of The World, deluxe edition. This stuff was the first real music..."

"Isn't that like two hundred years old or something? How did they even get that?"

Pidge put her explaining-things face on, and began. "After The Garrison started discovering more and more planets, they decided that if the government were to move, they would take four Earthly things with them. Music, recipes, books and a calendar."

"Why those things?" Lance asked.

"Music and books to remind them of Earth, recipes to keep foodie culture alive, and a calendar so they wouldn't miss important dates, like the Fourth of July, or Eleventh of November."

"And they chose Queen for the music?"

"Amongst others." Pidge explained, "They also had a bit of Mozart, Calvin Harris and the Star Wars theme tune."

Lance laughed, "Come on, put it into the speaker system. Maybe that works."

Needless to say, a couple of minutes later, both Pidge and Lance were jamming to Queen on a galactic scale.


	8. I Swear This Isn't Rogue One

The plan was a good plan when they trout of it next to the IGF Atlas, until it came to actually getting anywhere close to the surface of the Balmera. The general in charge of these particular mines was obviously point-blank driven by craze with keeping this poor Balmera as secure and trapped as possible. There must have been some absolutely huge crystals when the site was founded, or they wouldn't have gone to this much effort to keep it so heavily draped in that eerie purple metal.

Pidge looked at the mines with heavy eyes, remembering when she first met Shay and her family living in such terrible conditions, not even being able to see the sky, and this one was a hundred times worse. A Balmera-wide force field was installed around the surface, supposedly to prevent any rogue ships from stealing the loot a that the general had claimed for themselves or to sell.

She looked at Lance, who seemed just as puzzled as she was with the whole situation, and in no better state of mind.

"There's no way that anybody would be able to get into this place without having some kind of ID card, I think." He said, "They would only let in Galra."

Pidge sighed, "And we don't exactly have a very purple ship, either."

Remembering her training from the garrison, Pidge suddenly had an idea.

"Lance? You know when the Garrison said that if you were stuck in space, there was a button on every ship that you could press that made the ship land immediately on the nearest habitable planet?"

Lance looked up and his remarkably slow train of thought led him to what Pidge was talking about after a good minute. "If we went straight through the force field with the helmets on, we could parachute our way down to that entrance when the ship burns up from the force field!"

Pidge grinned, then pointed to the Balmera. "There's a mine shaft there where we could land without being seen. Should we do it?"

"Yep!"

"That. Was. Awesome." Pidge said between gasps of air. "Using the packs like that... I didn't think you had it in you to be smart, dumb one."

Lance rolled his eyes, "You still won't let that go, will you?"

"Nope. Now, come on, let's find a crystal and shoot some sentries and get past some doors." She crept deeper into the cavern.

Lance chuckled, "Just like old times, then."

"Yeah."

They shot some sentries and got past some doors.

Just like old times.


	9. Stealing Crystals The Size of Barges

After Pidge had successfully shut down at least ten sentries, Lance realised something.

"Pidge?" He asked. "Have you seen any crystals yet? Because theses walls look like they haven't had crystals in them for quite some time."

Pidge looked up from trying to de-arm a sentry to get past the gate. "No, I haven't." She frowned. "Do you think there are any jewels here at all?"

Lance pondered. "Well, we are going through the transportation routes, maybe we need to check the crystal silos?"

Pidge got up after successfully sawing an arm off a guard, then said, "Well, we've not been very successful here, so I guess that's our best option." Pidge walked over to a second door, to the side of the main one, and opened it with the detached limb she was holding. "So? You coming or what, dumb one?"

"Stop! Seriously!"

"When would I ever be serious?"

Hunk was flying the lion to Shay's Balmera to free it when a pre-recorded message came through the radio. Hunk put the speaker system in and listened. Sam Holt was on the line.

"Paladins, I have recorded this message and sent it to each of your lions so only you and those you trust can hear it. We need you back at the IGF Atlas on the third moon of H'rai, preferably as soon as you get the message. Put only your lives before this order. Over."

Hunk sat there and blinked for a good five seconds before saying: "Should we go?" And then welcoming another ten seconds of awkward silence.

"Sam looked pretty worried in the message. And it looks pretty urgent to me." Alex said.

Shay frowned, "I'll guess home will have to wait a little bit longer, then." She said, grumbling slightly.

Alex patted her on the shoulder. "Hey, after this one mission, we can always go back to the Balmera and save them. We've got time." He reassured her.

Hunk pulled a lever and the lion flew on course to the third moon of H'rai, where the Atlas was apparently kept.

Lance had made it into the crystal silo with Pidge on his tail, he performed a series of hand movements, clearly describing how to get in and out without being seen. Pidge gave him the things up, and ran to the back of the silo, and knocked out a sentry who was guarding a lever. She pulled it, and the entire front of the silo dropped open, with crystals the size of barges cascading out like a glowing river of gems.

Lance dived straight into the pile and grabbed one of the slightly smaller gems, but he couldn't lift it even then. The gems were too big.

Pidge looked around for something to carry it in, and her eyes fell upon a cart connected to a clear mining system. She grabbed a loose rope from the floor, and tied it around the crystal that Lance had tried to carry on his own. Then, they each pulled the crystal that precious two feet to the cart and started pushing. Granted, pushing a ton of teludav rock on wheels was a darn sight easier than dragging it on bare ground.

Halfway through the journey, Pidge spotted an air hangar with a roof opening, clearly for shipping crystal form this Balmera to a galra cruiser somewhere in the middle of a cruiser harbour.

She looked around for ideas, and spotted a gas container set to be loaded onto a ship quintant. She edged closer to the barrels and read what was on the containers. Apparently it was Nephim, which was a fuel additive for short, fast journeys. It was also deadly poisonous, but only to Galra. It was such a perfect distraction, she thanked the universe under her breath. Now all she needed to do was pierce the inch-thick steel encasing the gas without being caught. Easy.

"Lance?" She whispered, "I need you to sneak up on that guy sleeping on those crates, and steal his sword. Got it?"

Lance nodded, and crept off, leaving Pidge to grab a handful of rocks on the floor, then throw them straight at the button controlling the doors to the emergency vacuum room. The doors slammed shut, then Lance came back with the gun. "Now what?" He asked.

Pidge knitted her eyebrows. "I need you to throw a grenade straight at the doors to the emergency vacuum room, leaving the room useless and every Galra in here poisoned. But only when I say 'geezer'. Okay?"

Lance smiled, and pulled a detonate-on-contact grenade, ready to throw.

Pidge aimed the stolen gun at the barrel, said "Geezer." then shot a hole right through the middle of the stack.

A thick yellow cloud piled out from the hole in the container, smelling like burnt food goo. "This is disgusting." Lance complained.

"Well this is going to get both us and the crystal out of here, so follow me." She ordered, so Lance crept on after her towards a forklift truck. "Just because it's saving our lives doesn't make it less disgusting." He said underneath his breath.

"I heard that."


	10. Finding her

A third of the way from the IGF Atlas, Alex woke up from a nap. He looked out the window and saw something that looked very out of place on an asteroid. "Hey, is that Alterran tech?" Alex asked, referring to the hybrid tech that humans based on Altean magic. "The place looks completely abandoned, should we scan it for life? We could rescue some people." He suggested.

Hunk peered through the cockpit window, and told the lion to scan the lonesome asteroid for signs of life. One weak red heat signature was visible in the supposed command centre of the outpost, occasionally blacking out completely, but always appearing again after a tick or so.

"Should we check it out?" Acxa asked.

Hunk thought for a moment, before he slowly guided the lion towards an open hangar near the command centre.

Shay got out first because she could survive in a vacuum, and felt like she was split in two. One half of her felt warm and at home with the familiar Alterran surroundings, but the other half felt sad at their clear decay. She waved to Alex, Acxa and Hunk that it was safe to get out, and they followed her into a flight of stairs with their helmets on to breathe right. Joanna and Keith stayed behind to guard the lion.

"Why are we taking the stairs instead of an elevator?" Alex asked.

"The elevator's probably just as broken as the rest of the system in this place." Acxa said, climbing the stairs slightly faster than Alex. "The stairs won't drop on us here, it's cemented into the building."

Hunk was the last up the stairs, walking slower than usual. Shay looked back and asked, "Are you okay?" As he seemed to have a sorrowful look on his face.

"Just wondering what might have happened here. How there's only one person alive on the ship." He said, still keeping eyes on the railing that his hand was gliding on.

Once the trio had made it to the top of the staircase and through a short corridor, they found the control centre, or what used to be one.

The panels around the walls had been ripped bare off the plaster, leaving life support systems that would usually be in the walls sprawled across the floor in an array of tanks, pipes and wires. One was lying in a recovery position on the floor next to a fire escape. A gaping wound gushed deep red blood from their hip, so it was clearly a fresh one. Part of their hair was singed off at the ends. Acxa ran over to the dying person, pushed hair out of the way and gasped.

Veronica Kogane, her wife and only lover, presumed dead, was lying there, barely alive, with nobody to help her.

She looked desperately at Hunk, who nodded and ran alongside Alex to get a medical kit. Shay crouched over to where Acxa was, and kneeled down. "It's gonna be okay." She said. "Veronica's a strong person. She'll get through it." She rubbed her shoulder, which she found annoying, but she knew she was only doing it to reassure herself.

After Hunk and Alex had returned with First aid, they took over with getting Veronica off the bloodstained floor and into the yellow lion to safety.

Acxa followed behind, comforted by Shay's words, but still worried for Veronica. She was only human, and they were very weak when it came to attacked bases.

Once they were in the lion, Acxa helped Keith and Joanna put Veronica inside a healing pod to recover. She say there for the rest of the journey, scared to the bones that Veronica wouldn't survive the trip. The hip injury led her to losing way too much blood than was good for her. Not that losing any would have been good, anyway.

Hunk landed the lion on the Atlas carefully, as to not shake the healing pod, but Acxa was still on her toes. A couple of Garrison medics came into the lion to aid Veronica, and Acxa followed them. Hunk sat on a bench next to Keith and tried to start a conversation. "You okay?"

Keith sighed. "Do you want the short version or the long version?" He leaned back on the bench out of tiredness.

Hunk's mouth twitched. "I think both of us would feel better if you told me the long version." He said.

And so Keith began. He and Acxa had been captured by sentries commanded by General Karr when Mira was barely ten, and were tortured for for information until Karr came to the conclusion that they were solid lockers. Mira has rescued them along with Jo, but they had never been able to talk to each other properly. He missed her so much, and he finally had her back, but she ignored him.

Hunk sighed, then said, "Try talking to her and catch up on things. Make some time for conversation. Don't just wait for her to realise that you're suddenly back in her life again." He then got up and went back to the yellow lion to work on getting the mud off the Lion's claws.

"So, we've just stolen a crystal from probably the Galra's most protected Balmera mine to power a ship that barely anyone knew was rebuilt." Lance said to himself, not quite believing that they had succeeded in such a reckless and dangerous mission. He looked at Pidge, who's eyes were looking straight ahead, blinking rarely. She was strange when she was concentrating. "Pidge?"

"Oh, yeah. About that, we're coming up on the Gobi System." Her knuckles were white after gripping the joysticks for so long.

Suddenly, a every sound stopped. Before they knew it, the two paladins were hit by a ship twice the size of an average Galra cruiser, it's colossal hull ramming into the side of the pod with the force of a Concorde.

He blacked out.


	11. Mul'Boorja Camp

p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"What the Quiznak just happened? Just a second ago, he had been flying the crystal back to the Atlas in a hijacked ship when everything had suddenly blacked out./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He coughed for a rough minute, and tried to get up, but his legs were pinned down with the weight of a small, blurry green thing./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He blinked adjusting his vision, and realised that the small green thing, obviously unconscious in front of him, was Pidge. Lance shook his head to regain his senses and leaned forward, carefully putting her down to his left in a recovery position, as practiced many times before./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He then managed to stand up, confused at his peaceful surroundings, The the shocking reality hit him. They were completely and utterly stranded. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The loading pod had obviously crashed in a quiet forest clearing, with breathable air (Thank the heavens). The ship in pieces around him was never going to be fixed, but the crystal in the padded carrier wasn't dented at all. He sighed. That was a lot of luck for someone who had never pulled a short straw from any game./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Then, a tired, weakened groan came from behind Lance. Pidge had woken up./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""Lance?" She said groggily. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"He turned around and ran to where she was, holding her up so she could breathe properly. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""It's okay, I'm fine... Ugh!" She winced, her ankle was bent from the impact. /span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""I think I have some bandages in the kit." Lance ran to an area of the wreckage that was made up of supplies. He pulled out a roll of linen, and began tying it around her ankle. She winced fro the pain, but tried to stay still so Lance could tie the knot properly./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"After Pidge's ankle was secure with cloth, Lance ran off to find a pair of substitute crutches, leaving Pidge to take in the surroundings./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The forest around them reminded her of when her mother would take her and Matt to Italy to see their Zia, Carlotta, who lived in the woods, and they would visit the forests around her house to find Ilova, the cat, before dark./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"She sighed, and a poke brought her back to reality. Lance had just arrived with a metal pipe about her height. It was in a 'Y' shape, allowing her to holt it easily. Lance helped her up and she leans on the pipe, gasping for a breath./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;""So what do we do now?" Lance asked./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"She frowned, "We can't leave the crystal here, we don't know who might be in those woods."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Lance raised an eyebrow, "Are you saying we camp out in the wreckage?"/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"Pidge sighed, "I don't think we have a lot of options left." She grabbed some of the ship's framing, and stabbed it deep into the ground. "I guess we might as well set up camp. We might be here a while."/span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"The two paladins got to work on making a tent, and very soon, what had once been a disgusting, fuming wreckage of a stolen galra pod was now a reasonably neat tent./span/p  
p style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: 8px; line-height: normal; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue'; -webkit-text-stroke-width: initial; -webkit-text-stroke-color: #000000;"span style="font-size: 8pt; -webkit-font-kerning: none;"After the two suns in the sky were beginning to get low, Lance lay down on one of the benches and drifted into a dreamless sleep, known only by those who have been in a state of mind so rushed, that these nights are those that keep them grounded./span/p 


	12. Dreaming of a Captured Soul

She couldn't tell lance anything that happened in the dream. He would follow her everywhere if she did.

From what she could remember, Pidge was walking alone in the forest they crashed in, but with no need for crutches, and smelling the unusual scents of whatever planet this was. It reminded her of Olkarion, but the trees were shorter.

She knew where she was going, but there was no way she would find Green here, was there?

After what felt like a millennia treading on already broken sticks, the familiar and loving sight of the green lion broke into view.

Her beautiful green paint had been scratched, supposedly by landing in a forest as dense as this. Sadly, Green's eyes were fading. Their loving yellow gaze, flickering every other moment.

She ran over to the lion, tears of happiness streaming out of her eyes.

Then everything faded into black.

She was floating in the middle of a huge black void, and Green was nowhere to be seen.

Then, a voice came from behind her.

"1-44-B-C-Epsilon."

The voice was gruff, clearly tired and annoyed.

She managed to turn herself around, and covered her mouth in shock.

The green lion was tied down with multiple ropes, all tied just that bit too tight so the pain wouldn't stop. A couple of sentries were aiding a private in opening its mouth to get inside.

 _Pidge._

A voice came in from the distance, calm and soothing, it reminded her of Green.

 _You need to get me out of here. There is not much time before they_

Green was actually speaking with her!

 _Pidge, only you can rescue me._

But what would happen to Lance? She thought.

 _He will find his way home, but only you can find me in the woods of Mul'Boorja._

What was the lion saying? Were she and Lance currently on Mul'Boorja?

 _We will find a way home. Trust me, Pidge._

Then she woke up.


	13. Rescue From Planet Mul'Boorja

An almighty noise broke through the thick woods, like a machine drilling through solid rock. Pidge and Lance both shot up immediately from the makeshift benches they were slumbering on.

Pidge made a grab for her crutch, but Lance motioned for her to stay still, then he snuck a look behind the front flap of the tent. He leapt back from the sight, and put a finger to his lips, urging them both to stay silent. He put one hand up, then drew a circle on it with his pinky. The sign for galra.

Pidge could hear heavy footsteps circling the tent, two pairs. Obviously sentries, the intruders clearly had a naturally slow pace, but that wouldn't give them much more time to get out of there.

She looked over at Lance. He was none the wiser than she was. Oh for the love of-

Suddenly, the familiar drill started again, this time from right above them.

The soldiers outside stopped, then one of them said, "That's gotta be it, come on, help me up so i can get a good look."

There were sounds of a struggle, then the doltish soldiers had obviously fallen. The drill started again, this time right where the soldiers had collapsed. Pidge turned around and peaked through a gap in the tent's lining, the intruders were tied up with what looked like the string her bayard used to emit, but this one was orange. She turned back to tell Lance what had happened, and nearly fell over.

A bounty hunter, dressed in typical stolen clothes and wearing a mask, was holding Lance by the neck, she screamed.

"How in the name of quiznak did you get in here?" Pidge yelled.

The bounty hunter put Lance down. "Sorry for that ruse, I had to make sure you were who I thought you were. Haven't seen you in a while, Aunt Pidge." The hunter removed her mask, and Pidge let out a sigh of relief. It was Joanna.

"You can be really scary at times, you know..." She grabbed her crutch, and got off the bench, "How did you know we were here?" She asked.

Joanna sat down next to Lance, then began: "I rescued Mira's folks from a sticky situation breaking out from a prison, then we rescued mine. After we had all been pleased to meet each other,s acquaintances, we got a message from the Atlas, saying we had to meet someone there. We were going to head straight there, then Alex noticed an Alterean base that had been abandoned. He nagged Uncle Hunk into scanning it fir life forms, found one and went on board. The base still had life support systems going, so all the humans could breathe."

Lance knitted his eyebrows. "Did you find anyone there?"

Joanna sniffed, "We found Aunt Veronica, she was on the brink of death out there, but we brought her back to the Atlas. We stayed there a while, then Captain Shirogane called us to the bridge and told Mira and I that they had sent you two to get a crystal from a near balmera, but had lost contact. When I found the balmera, I was told by a couple of locals that they had managed to escape, so I retraced my steps, searching every planet i found, then I landed on this one."

"Mul'Boorja." Pidge started, accidentally.

"You know?" Lance asked.

"I mean, I guess. Mul'Boorja's known for its woodland." She quickly covered up. He couldn't know.

Lance leaned back on the bench, nearly falling through the tent flap. Joanna caught him.

"I have a ship just outside," She mentioned. "I could get you and the dumb one out of here if you want."

Lance leapt up. "Yes! Thank you!" He fisted the air.

Pidge swallowed. "I have to stay." She blurted out.

Lance and Joanna looked at her in confusion. "But you're the most vulnerable here! Why would you need to stay where the galra are clearly present?" Lance argued.

"I-I can't tell you. Just take the crystal and leave. I have business here that I need to attend to by myself."

Lance pouted, then got up and walked out the tent flap. "Joanna, you coming? I don't know where the ship is." He called.

"I have to go." Joanna picked up her bag of supplies, then, before leaving, said, "Good luck, Aunt Pidge."

Pidge smiled to herself, and out of hope for Joanna and Lance. "Good luck, Joanna. Fly safe." She saluted Joanna. A running joke between the two of them. Joanna saluted back, then left the tent. Pidge could hear Joanna and Lance carry the weight of the enourmous crystal. The drill of the spacecraft began again, and Pidge was alone in the tent.

Now she had to find Green.


	14. The Plan, The Place and The Pidge

In terms of basic cleverness, this plan was the worst idea Pidge had had in a long time.

Lance and Joanna had just left the planet's atmosphere in Joanna's unreasonably noisy shuttle, and she was alone on Mul'Boorja, a planet that was probably occupied by the Galra. Oh, joy and happiness.

She checked in various supply boxes for any useful tools, and found most of the essentials. Food, water, a rope, a transponder, and a rifle. She figured the rifle was needed because the two soldiers outside were stirring.

Pidge had barely made it a couple of yards away from the tent, she heard a cough. One of the tied-up soldiers had awoken.

She wrapped her scarf around her face, as to hide her identity, then loaded the rifle. She turned around and found the woken soldier with his hands in the air.

"Please! Don't shoot!"

She hesitated, but didn't lower her weapon at all. It was one of the things that came with being a convict since she was fifteen, no biggie. "Why?" She replied with an unmoving expression. Or at least stern enough that the soldier didn't realise she was sweating places that people should never sweat in from the stress.

"I'm not with the empire! I'm one of the blades! Please!" The soldier's voice was rather high-pitched for a Galra.

"Pidge stifled a gasp, the Blade of Maromora was still going? "Prove it," she said, "show me your blade."

The soldier carefully reached to his back, and pulled out a blade from under his hood. It had a similar curvature to Keith's, but was shorter and wider with more of a triangular blade than Keith's. Pidge sighed, "And the other guy?"

The soldier hesitated for a minute, as if he were listening to something. "No more heartbeat. He's dead."

Pidge stumbled forward, then caught herself, after trudging to where the galra were tied up, and worked her dagger into the rope. It came off with a struggle, Joanna clearly knew which ropes to use.

After Pidge had finally cut him loose, the blade stood up, and it soon was revealed that he was not much taller than Pidge. Unusual for a Galra.

"Must be hard." She said, smirking.

"What?" He replied, crossing his arms, as if he knew what was coming.

Pidge pocketed her dagger, "Working for the blades with a good two feet missing from your height."

"Bit rich coming from you, short stack." He started smiling.

"Hey, I don't even know your name yet!"

The blade dusted off his uniform. "It's Lazkanar, but since you've rescued me from a rather sticky situation, you're allowed to call me Laz. You must be Pidge, the Green Paladin" He offered his hand out.

Pidge took his hand and shook it. "Yeah, it's kinda hard to hide that." She hesitated, then said, "You haven't seen a... um.. a green lion anywhere have you?" She immediately regretted saying it, but was relieved when Laz answered.

"Yeah, the New Empire found it here and they've been trying to get into it for years. I'm guessing it did a kind of... mind... communication... thing with you." He slapped his hand to his forehead; "Sorry, I can't speak right today."

Pidge shrugged, "I can't speak right any day, it's okay. Could you tell me where exactly there keeping Green?"

Laz nodded; "Better, I can take you there. Pretend you're my prisoner-"

"-who you're taking to a ship to get to a prison, and you need a rover to get to the craft site." Pidge finished.

"Then, when I lean you against the hood of the vehicle to open the door, you can make a run to the decoding room."

"Big enough to fit a lion in." Pidge guessed.

Laz smiled, " And with its orange walls, really hard to miss."

Pidge sighed, "Sounds like a pretty good plan, except, I can't walk without using my cane at the moment."

Laz considered this, then said, "Act like you're unconscious, and I can carry you over my shoulder."

Pidge looked the scrawny Galran up and down, then nearly doubled over laughing; "You couldn't carry a sack of grapes if your life depended on it! Let alone a forty-six year old woman with a broken ankle!"

Laz looked offended for a moment, before grabbing Pidge by the shoulders and lifting her up a good two feet in the air. She stopped laughing, and blinked a couple of times to make sure what she saw was real. "Holy Quiznak." She said, after a good ten seconds gawping. "Um, can you go ahead with the plan now, please? I kind of want to hurry on this..."

Laz winked, then hooked Pidge over his shoulder, where she promptly fell limp. "This is you pretending, right?" He asked, just to make sure."

"Yep. To the Green Lion we go!" She raised a fist in pre-victorious fashion.


End file.
